Elisheva Meira ✡︎ 🌈Day 1: Since when have you been watching dramas?
I only started watching Asian dramas in spring of this year. I am a noob.
I only discovered Thai series in July.
End of the Year Drama Challenge
Day 2: Favourite actress discovered in 2023 (this is how noob I am 😂): Zhao Lusi, because she rocks a screwball comedy (Romance of Tiger and Rose); Park Eun Bin (Do You Like Brahms? but then she turns around and pulls off Extraordinary Attorney Woo); Ployphach Phatchatorn (Bam in Midnight Museum, Teacher Sani in The Eclipse); Prigkhing Suriyaret (55:15, Yiwha in Engima, Blacklist)
Day 3: Favourite actor discovered in 2023: First Kanaphan (Not Me, The Eclipse, Moonlight Chicken, Only Friends, Blacklist);
Ohm Pawat (He's Coming to Me, Bad Buddy, Blacklist)
Day 4: Favourite original song from a 2023 drama:
My favourite 2023 OST is from a mangled 2 episode follow-up wherein the director and scriptwriter failed to remember what made their two central characters from the main series stand out.
At least we got this song...
Khaotung Thanawat and First Kanaphan, Your World My World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brx_0x9yHiw
ฟังดีดี (Your World, My World) Ost.Our Skyy คาธ - First, Khaotung
Day 5: A visually beautiful 2023 drama: I Feel You Linger in the Air, but also much of Moonlight Chicken.
Day 6: A drama you dropped
Mysterious Lotus Casebook
Goblin
2gether
I know I'm pretty much in a minority of 1 on this but I no longer have it in me to give that much time to series with that much stress. And I just can't celebrate red flag characters who don't grow out of it. There are too many other things to give my time and attention to.
I wish I could be more mainstream, it would be less lonely. But I just can't.
Day 7: Fav character of 2023
A week ago it was Wen (Moonlight Chicken), my favourite character since July, because even though he's made a mess of his own life (which he does clean up) he's great at helping others with their troubles.
But now it's Tane in Bokura no Shokutaku, a 4yo boy of infinite charisma & cheeky adorableness. His vitality keeps things going, which allows the quieter older pair the time they need to figure their relationship out. He is the world's cutest wingman
#JapaneseBL
Ran out of room and forgot to include a picture of Tane, the world's cutest wingman. Bokura no Shokutaku
Day 7, favouite character
Day 8: Standout secondary character of 2023
As much as I love Yiwha fangothing the existence of magic in Enigma, they didn't give her much else in the 4 eps.
Moonlight Chicken, on the other hand was only 2x as long and developed multiple 2ndary chars well. It was ensemble. Can we even call complicated Li Ming 2nd? Leng's own story, + as friend & observer was integral to our understanding. Alan's intensity = big impact in not much screen time. Mrs Hong. Heart. Gaipa. All of them 😍
Day 9: A drama from another year you watched in 2023
I'm new to this so a lot to catch up on.
Favourites so far:
He's Coming to Me (funny, heartbreaking, full of warmth, kindness and love)
Not Me (intelligent, articulate, challenging, powerful, conversations on difficult subjects with no clear answers)
The Eclipse, Bad Buddy (one darker, one lighter; both about the strength a relationship brings)
Do You Like Brahms?, Queen In Hyun's Man, The Romance of Tiger and Rose
Day 10: Did you rewatch a drama in 2023?
Yes. I am slow and I rewatch. Asian drama that is, the only western series I've rewatched in the last 20 years is Dr Who (9th-11th).
Don't know that there's much point in listing the Asian series I've rewatched though.
Day 11: A drama that kept you riveted: The Eclipse. I don't binge. I watched 12 episodes in 24 hours because those boys were so vulnerable and needed to be safe.
4 eps one evening, woke up next morning and watched 4 more, but wore myself out so had to wait to finish.
Enigma, although that was 4 eps in 5 hours so a bit more relaxed ;)
Not Me was more my usual, riveted but also found it so rich and satisfying I slowed right down.
Day 12: A platonic relationship that you loved
Li Ming and Wen. Another from Moonlight Chicken, because it is all about the relationships between the friends
Li Ming is 18 yo and constantly at odds with his uncle who is raising him alone. Wen has become close friends with the uncle but also makes a strong friendship with Li Ming separately. He helps Li Ming and Jim understand each other whilst respecting Li Ming's privacy. Great example of how to do this right.
Day 13: A drama you found boring
King the Land
I watched 3 or 4 episodes, wherein they gave us "justification" for the poor little rich boy ML being a dick, then I had to pause for some reason or another and when I returned to it, it started with the ML being a dick to the FL and I decided it just wasn't worth the bother.
Day 14: A production crew member who caught your attention
Everyone behind the scenes for Enigma. They did so much with lighting, acting and some simple props whose significance had been skillfully set up earlier in the story telling.
Editing was excellent of course, to make it all work.
Bias against it, because it's set in a girls' high school, because it's Thai, because whatever, means you lot missed out on a gem.
Day 15: A trope you loved seeing in 2023
Found family. BL does it better than any other genre I've found.
At the heart of my 2023 favourites Bokura no Shokutaku, where two quiet young men, each carrying deep sadness, fall in love whilst essentially co-parenting the World's Cutest Kid, and Moonlight Chicken with its interconnected close and supportive friendships. They go through difficulties and arguments but always take care of each other. Great example of non-toxic masculinity
Day 16: Best actress of 2023
Co-writers/directors/actresses
Ward Reinalyn & Klio Manabat
Shout out and #DecRec for Lei & Mar, a gentle story of two high school girls and their feelings for each other.
Klio and Ward were clever enough with their story and directing they were able to work a lot into 38 minutes without it feeling rushed or incomplete. It is really well done.
They're a couple in real life and their connection as friends and partners shines through.
LEI & MAR (GL shortfilm) | Ward Reinalyn & Klio Manabat
Day 17: Best actor of 2023
Mark Pakin, who stormed a messy complicated role in a messy complicated series (Only Friends) which really needed better writing and editing. He was also Leng in Moonlight Chicken and part of the glue which made that series work so well.
Iijima Hiroki & Inukai Atsuhiro, Bokura no Shokutaku, who were able to quietly convey so much emotion in characters who found it hard to express themselves. And 8 yo Maeyama Kuuga for Tane.
Day 18: A favourite scene of 2023 part 1
From July it was the midnight walk through Chinatown in Pattaya City, Moonlight Chicken. 15 mins into the episode I was hooked on a new culture and new genre
By my 3rd rewatch I knew the actors well enough to appreciate the impact P'Aof intended when he introduced Mark Pakin, Fourth, and Khaotung's characters in less than a minute. And then like 10 secs of First looking pained at the end of ep 4. Played our emotions perfectly
[Eng Sub] Moonlight Chicken พระจันทร์มันไก่ | EP.1 [1/4]
Day 18: A favourite scene of 2023 part 2
In an attempt to find one favourite scene in Bokura no Shokutaku I rewatched it all tonight and have narrowed it down slightly.
Because spoilers let's just go with pretty much all of episode 3. It has Tane being adorable, Tane throwing a tantrum, Yutaka being Yutaka and Minoru falling in love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkkMPuKhKFg
You'll have to watch until a later episode to get the giant poop interjection into a meaningful conversation 💩
Itadakimasu! 😋 Exactly who is the person Yutaka likes in Japanese BL "Our Dining Table"?
Day 19: A drama that made you laugh
Day 20: A drama that made you cry
He's Coming to Me
A kind boy who can see ghosts grows up and takes a lonely one home to his uni flat, as you do.
There is so much kindness and warmth in this. It is beautiful and funny and heartbreaking and full of love.
8 hour-long episodes and well worth your time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG0H6JUHLMs&list=PLYYyUhZKiEj7Yz5o5bS5Keny6lX7R-gQR
Jill 🛸